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By By Tim HuberASSOCIATED PRESS • Sunday November 30, 2008 5:56 AM

Is clean coal a good energy fix? -

Q: What is clean coal or clean-coal technology? Does such a thing exist and why aren't we using it all the time?

A: Environmentalists frequently scoff at the notion of clean coal. Although they say there's no such animal, President-elect Barack Obama and many others say clean coal does exist -- and they are pushing for the United States to invest potentially billions of dollars in electric power plants that produce far less pollution than existing coal-fired generators and in motor-fuel refineries.

Proponents such as coal producers, big electric utilities and coal states such as West Virginia say clean coal is key to helping America achieve energy independence.

Clean coal isn't such a new notion. Clean-coal supporters are always quick to point out that coal-fired power plants have slashed sulfur, nitrogen and particulate emissions over the years.

Environmentalists say one key to stopping global warming is to quit using coal. That's a tall order for the United States, however, which gets about half its electricity from coal-fired power plants.

Energy companies and energy-producing states argue that the country can continue to burn coal by using technology to capture carbon dioxide before it gets loose in the atmosphere, then pump it underground for permanent storage.

That's not such a far-fetched idea.

The oil industry has been pumping carbon dioxide into aging wells to increase production for decades, and the ability to keep the gas underground is being tested in several large-scale projects.

The other big area of interest for clean coal is the production of motor fuels. That's old technology used by Germany during World War II and by South Africa, which turned coal into fuel during the apartheid era. Several U.S. developers hope to build coal-to-liquids plants.